Episode 70 Homes Under the Hammer

Hello and welcome to the programme.

Now before you go investing in property, you really need to make

sure you know about the local property market.

Yes, get that research done.

And with so much of it online now,

you can do it from the comfort of own home.

Yes, and when you've done that, you view the property and you've

read the legal pack, of course,

get ready and get organised to go down to your local property auction.

Well, there are still some serious bargains to be had when the hammer falls.

Yes, however, there are potential banana skins along the way everywhere.

There certainly are. Let's find out if today's buyers managed

to grab one of those bargains.

First up, I'm in Brompton in Kent and you've got to be resilient on this show.

Locked patio door!

Not to worry, eh?

And in Workington, Cumbria, I'm learning you need to be strict too.

And next you'll be telling me, even with a law degree, that you didn't read the legal pack?

Whilst in Great Barr, West Birmingham,

you've got to expect the unexpected on this show.

Wow, that, that surprised me. I wasn't, I wasn't expecting that at all.

All these properties have been sold at auction.

And we'll find out who bought them and what they paid

when they went under the hammer.

It's yours, sir.

Today I'm in Kent, and in an area around Gillingham.

But other than that, I'm slightly at a loss to know what to call this place.

# And I don't even know your name... #

So this was called New Brompton, or possibly Old Brompton.

But now, the Old Brompton has become Gillingham,

or is it the other way around?

Well, I don't know, anyway... Here I am, wherever I am, to look at this.

It's a two-bed end terrace, guide price at 135-£140,000.

Wherever it is, let's have a look inside.

I like the fact it's set back from the road, and there's an

unusual round window, which is a little bit different.

But that front garden could do with a bit of a tidy up.

So, nice little porch area to start off with,

and then into the main body of the house.

Stairs up to the bedrooms there,

and then just kind of like wiggle through the entrance area,

I'll explore down there in a second.

But through into your main living room, I guess.

It's a through room, presumably dining room on the other side there.

Immediately, it doesn't smell like it's damp,

but obviously has that sort of immediate look of a house of an era.

We've got the polystyrene ceiling tiles, which definitely need to go.

We've got the kind of furnishings that...

A major refurbishment, but not structural.

Just cosmetic required.

And so, yeah, I'm liking what I'm seeing, actually.

So, a bit of storage area under the stairs,

then through into the kitchen.

A bit like the rest of the house so far,

dated and in need of modernisation.

And straightaway, I'm getting that feeling, is this one of those

houses where you just try and remove as many of the

internal walls as you possibly can to really open up the space?

It would certainly be dramatic if you did that,

because it's a great little house.

It just needs... definitely playing with.

Because through the kitchen, you've got this little lean-to area, there,

so that's quite nice. Yeah, just knock as many of these walls

out as you possibly can.

Now, I'm not saying wave a sledgehammer around, willy-nilly.

Obviously there's a limit to what walls can and can't go.

And you do need to get advice from an expert on that.

But I think this is a case where less rooms would

definitely make more sense.

# I've got too many

# And that's wrong for you... #

Well, you have to give it to this little house.

It's packing a lot of things into a little space, that's for sure.

Up here, two bedrooms.

They're a good size. You've also got the bathroom and loo down that way.

But again, it feels a bit cramped partly because it's got so much

stuff in it at the moment perhaps.

But again, I wonder if there's internal changes you could make.

But all in all, full-size, a lot of property, I think, for the money.

Decoratively, this house is rather stuck in another era,

and those pesky polystyrene tiles are everywhere and need to go.

But these are two good-sized bedrooms nevertheless.

While the bathroom, well, that will need the full works.

Suite, tiles, shower, the lot.

If there are signs that the house hasn't been touched for a while inside,

outside it's even more apparent.

Well, out the back of the property, there is a reasonably sized garden.

But as you can see, it is totally overgrown with brambles.

So, actually, to get back inside...

I've got to destroy this rather large bramble barricade.

So, there you go. No problem.

Nothing is going to get in my way.

Nothing apart from a locked patio.

Not to worry, eh?

# I'm on the outside looking in... #

Well, this house might be trapped in the past, but what does a local

estate agent think about it and its potential?

It's an ex-local authority property, which are always solidly built.

They have good proportion sized rooms.

Garden needs a little bit of TLC.

Obviously, the rest of house needs TLC as well,

but when it's renovated, the demand here is massive.

Renovated to a high standard, it would sell very, very quickly.

The house was guided at 135-£140,000.

So what resale value could it command in this high demand area?

Once renovated, in my opinion,

the property should be marketed for offers in excess of £200,000.

And rental wise?

I would market this property at £850 per calendar month.

Well, yes, it needs a bit of sorting out, but intrinsically, a

nice house in a good area with great connections.

Yep, everything to like.

Let's see who bought it when it went under the hammer.

The guide of 135 to £140,000.

Where will we start me on this one?

Can we say bottom of the guide, 135,000?

135 on the way.

138, can I say 138?

140. 142.

And four, 144.

And six, 146.

And eight, 148.

150, fill her up.

So the Brompton house was proving popular.

We rejoined at the auction with a bidding at 174,000.

174, he says, "Yes."

175?

175 now.

175, is that the bid?

175. And six?

Threw your catalogue away. I'm taking that's a no.

£175,000 we have then.

176 for anybody else.

With yourself for the first time at 175, second time at 175,

third and final time, £175,000.

Sold, madam.

So, for £175,000, the two-bed house was bought by Hannah.

Hannah works as a university quality officer and this is her first

property purchase.

Hannah, lovely to meet you.

Congratulations, tell me why you wanted to buy this place.

Well, my main reason was because it's closer to work.

-OK.

-At the moment, I'm commuting from London all the way into

-Canterbury most days.

-Wow.

And, this is much more convenient being in Kent.

So is this going to be your home?

-Yes.

-Oh, brilliant!

I know! Apparently, it's not the usual thing to do -

buy a home to live in at auction.

Well, well, well, yeah... I don't know what the proportion is,

but a lot of people don't.

-But why ever not?

-The auctioneer was quite surprised.

Oh, right. So, so what took you to the auction, then?

I have been looking for somewhere to live for about a year.

I've probably viewed about 100.

-100?

-..while looking for this.

And I never found the one that was either quite right or the ones I did

find that were right, everyone else wanted it as well, so I wasn't successful.

I saw this come up at auction,

and it was actually my dad that suggested it.

And it was definitely worth the wait.

Yeah, well done for persevering.

No, it's not easy getting on the property ladder these days.

Even if you can get a mortgage,

finding a property you can afford is tricky.

But by sheer persistence, Hannah has finally made that first step.

But now she's got the house, what are her plans for it?

Obviously, the polystyrene ceilings have definitely got to go.

The wallpaper, carpets, and we're just going to give it a newer,

-fresher look.

-Right.

But no major modifications? No internal walls or anything like that?

We're going to investigate what ones we could and couldn't knock down and

see how much work that would be.

-Who's the "we"?

-Me, my family, my other half as well.

-Right.

-So, we'll be working on it together.

And have you got building experience, any of you?

Or is anyone in the family got it?

Everyone else has building experience apart from me.

-Oh, right, OK.

-So...

-That's OK.

I'm, I suppose, project manager.

But, everyone else knows more what they're doing than I do.

So you're going to draft in their help though?

Yeah. Definitely. Everyone's really keen to come in and get involved.

That's great. So, what's the budget for what you plan to do?

I think we're looking at about 5-10,000.

But it will depend on what we do eventually, decide to do with the house.

So I think, because we're moving in as well,

it's a kind of a case of see how we get on.

So is the idea to clear it out, presumably,

and then move in and do stuff room by room?

Or are you going to sort of do it all and then move in?

No, exactly. We're going to move in as soon as possible,

and then start work.

-Room by room.

-So what's the timescale for moving in?

Probably in around about a month, hopefully.

OK, and then in terms of the timescale for doing the work?

I mean... I think we will be looking about three to four months until

everything is a good standard.

OK, what about the garden?

The garden, is not something that I would particularly want to be too

involved with.

But we were actually going to get started with that this weekend.

Have you got people who could help you with that as well?

Yes, thankfully, I've got some keen gardeners.

So having got it now, how do feel?

Really looking forward to getting started on the work and being able

-to move in.

-Yeah, brilliant. Well, wish you well with that.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Looking forward to see how it all turns out.

Well, how great that Hannah has found a place that she can call home.

And it just goes to show that all sorts of properties come up at

auction that will suit all kinds of buyers.

How will she get on sorting it out?

You can find out later in the show.

This is the town of Workington, sited at the mouth of the River Derwent.

Back in 18th century, with a mining of iron ore, and coal locally,

Workington grew into a major industrial town and port.

These days, Workington is the main shopping centre for West Cumbria.

Just a few minutes walk from the centre of town is the property I'm

here to see.

It's a two-bed mid-terraced property with a guide price of £40-50,000.

And this is it. I have to say,

I love the stone frontage and that bay window.

I'm looking forward to looking inside.

So, what do we have?

We have a bit of a blank canvas already.

Yeah, looks like work's definitely begun here.

First off, you have a reception room.

That lovely bay window gives it a nice feeling.

You have a fireplace which has been torn out,

but you could make a real feature of it again.

And then through to a second reception room, a decent size.

I'm a big fan of open plan living, so you could think about...

It's a loadbearing wall.

It's not a small job,

but you could take that down and make this into a really big area.

Now this looks wet. These bricks look very wet.

And actually, to the touch, they are very wet.

So you absolutely want to, without delay, find out what the cause is there.

Whether there's been some sort of leak coming through the roof.

My guess would be it's the guttering.

It looks like someone started to tackle the problem by stripping this

back to the bare bones. And, talking of bare...

# Look for the bare necessities

# The simple bare necessities

# Forget about your worries and your strife... #

It needs some bare necessities.

Some essential heating, a rewire, and definitely some plastering.

Now, a bare necessity I've not seen yet is a kitchen

which, it has to be said, is, well, bare.

No units or appliances.

Yep, bare.

As a size of kitchen, it is pretty small.

But, I've changed my mind since I came across the kitchen.

So instead of taking down the walls, separating the two reception rooms,

I'd take down this wall instead.

Because, a lot of people like the idea now of a kitchen that feels

modern and spacious, room for dining,

but you'd still leave yourself another room downstairs.

Not everyone wants a vast, spacious ground floor.

You'd have another room for a snug area.

Maybe to watch your TV.

This property feels like it needs a team of people to turn it from a

blank canvas into a work of art,

which could be costly in terms of material and labour.

Surely this house has something in it aside from bricks and water.

Upstairs, and straight ahead into a bathroom.

Now, the only real giveaway it is a bathroom,

is because there's a lone toilet.

It looks kind of lonely.

Yeah, literally lonely. Otherwise, everything is gone.

But look at this. I love a wee bit of detective work.

Not that it takes much in a place like this,

but if you're thinking that looks like a former fireplace, it is.

If you're also thinking, "odd place to have a fireplace in your loo,"

you're spot on. But this originally would have been the third bedroom

because your toilet would have been outside.

Somebody has brought the toilet in up here,

put in the frosted glass for a bit of privacy,

and yet it's a huge bathroom area.

Plenty of room for a walk-in shower, separate bath, yeah.

Loads of potential here.

# All by myself

# Don't want to be all by myself... #

Hopefully the lonesome loo will have some company soon.

Time to take a look at the bedrooms.

Bedroom number one is not a bad size, but it's pretty unremarkable.

But at least it still has a plaster on the walls.

And it's the plaster that has my attention in bedroom number two.

There's a few cracks appearing,

which you want to make sure is nothing too problematic

like subsidence.

It needs a lot of graft,

but it could be brought up to scratch and be really quite nice.

Cracks can seem alarming, but sometimes fine or hairline

cracks appear due to stresses like vibration or temperature change.

Those shouldn't generally be a worry,

however, cracks more than 3mm wide,

especially if they're around doors and windows are worth investigating

to ascertain if there is ongoing movement.

There might be other signs.

Check if doors or windows stick, if skirting boards are uneven,

or if floors slope. Bottom line, it's always best to get a survey.

And outside, there are more worrying signs that suggest all may not be

well and that someone may have started investigations.

At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Although this house is reasonably spacious, this backyard isn't.

So this property guided at 40-£50,000,

is in need of some remedial work.

Time to ask a local estate agent along to give us his thoughts.

It's definitely fashionable in this day and age,

to have a big socialising area.

So to get that kitchen and dining room is definitely where I would

target, because I know that will stand out to a bigger audience.

It seems we both agree.

Open plan living is the way to go.

With quite a lot to do, what budget should the new owners set themselves?

So I believe to bring this property up to a good standard,

it's going to cost in the region of around £25,000.

It's obvious that there is a lot of work needed.

So what could this house guided at 40-£50,000 be worth once renovated?

I believe that this property is worth in the region of £95,000-£105,000

if the property is completed to a high standard.

So, taking into account the substantial renovation costs,

there's a good bit of wiggle room for profit,

even if you got it at the top end of that guide price.

What could it rent for?

On the rental market, I believe that this property,

up to a high standard, would achieve £450-£500 per calendar month.

Well, this is a pretty typical mid-terraced house.

The layout does work as it is, but if you opened up the downstairs

gave it some open plan living, it could be really nice and it just

needs a large dose of TLC to bring it up to scratch and then it can be a lovely home.

Let's find out who wanted to give it the kiss of life,

when it went under the hammer.

This terraced house,

attractive stone front elevation near the town centre and all

amenities. Start me, then, at what?

Middle of the guide, 45?

Anybody here, £45,000?

40?

40 bid with the proxy.

At 40 bid? At 40 bid. Are we done?

At £40,000, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48.

47 to you.

After a rather tentative start,

bidding picked up and the guide price was surpassed.

We rejoin at £61,000.

61, new bidders.

62. Is that a bid, sir?

62, 63.

63 bid, 64?

Here at 63. With you sir, at £63,000.

It's against you and it's against you.

First time, then.

Second time, at £63,000.

Third time, selling away.

Yours, sir.

A successful bid of £63,000 was made by Ethan.

Ethan, I'm sure will have read the legal pack,

because he has a law qualification.

Yes, I'm sure he will have.

And he's bought this property along with business partners,

Tim and David.

I met Ethan to find out what their plans are.

Ethan, hello.

-Hello.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you.

So tell me about you, is this your first property renovation?

Currently, we have a business going.

Quite a new business,

where we are purchasing a number of properties in the area.

This is our third property and we are trying to do them up and rent

them out in the area and just develop a profile.

We specialise in electrical, plumbing, and gas works.

So, fortunately, we are going to be able to do a lot of the work ourselves.

This sounds like a pretty perfect business model,

combining two businesses.

This project will go towards a rental portfolio,

while they can use staff from their 50-strong gas, plumbing,

and electrical operation to do the work.

It looks like a bit of work has been done already.

Yes, it has, yeah. We have stripped it back to the brick.

We have taken out the kitchen, the bathroom.

And is there anything that's worrying you particularly?

Because you have done a bit of stripping back, have you found anything?

We have, yes. The property's stood vacant for about two years now,

while it's been going on to auction.

And when we stripped the property back, we noticed that the gutters,

our project manager, Stuart, noticed that the gutters had been

overflowing for that time as they were blocked.

So actually, the area behind me,

there's been quite a bit of water damage

as it's been coming down the walls.

What did I say? Guttering.

On Homes Under The Hammer, we see so many properties that end

up at auction because of poor maintenance.

Mind you, there are another couple of things we like to go on about.

Do you feel a, "tsk, tsk," coming on?

We didn't get to view the house properly.

It was kind of a peeking through the window.

And next you'll be telling me, Ethan, with a law degree,

that you didn't read the legal pack.

-I did read the legal pack.

-Oh, good.

Yeah, fortunately that was the first thing I picked up when I went in there.

Just to basically see if there was any, any rights over the lands and

fortunately there wasn't.

Nothing stood out to myself.

OK, no row for Ethan.

The business partners and renovation team all seem to have a handle on

this project already.

So, what are these bare old bones of a property going to be treated to?

New kitchen, new bathroom.

They were in a really poor state.

We've stripped it back to the brick in places,

so we will have to plasterboard and seal everywhere.

We're looking at lining the walls, and getting,

rather than paintbrush and paint, we're going to get a professional

company in to spray the whole property.

It's a new longer-lasting, longer finished, more durable technique.

It's something that we've been dealing with.

A number of our suppliers recommend, so that's the plan.

-It's interesting.

-Yes, again not much maintenance.

After it's on there, it keeps very clean, it doesn't take marks as easy.

So it should be already in high spec for someone to move into and enjoy.

The only thing about really high spec,

is it comes with a really high budget.

-Yes, that's true.

-What is your budget?

Fortunately, because we're keeping everything in house,

our budget is £10,000 to invest on the property.

As they are renting the property out, they're not going to change the

layout as the expenditure wouldn't be recouped in the rental.

They've given themselves four months to complete,

so will Ethan be hands-on?

I'll help where I can. I'll always be here, if the lads do need help,

I will be there.

But no, we have a real competent qualified team of skilled workers.

I can't wait to see the results.

-Thank you very much.

-Best of luck.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Ethan.

-Cheers.

Ethan has a brilliant business model with a cracking team of experts just

waiting to go and blitz in there.

In fact, they're so keen,

they were barely out of the auction house and they started work.

Yes, but that ten grand budget,

will even they manage to turn a house around that needs pretty much

everything done within that?

You can find out later in the show.

Still to come in Great Barr, Birmingham,

I roll up my sleeves and get stuck in.

Excuse me.

Whilst in Workington, Cumbria,

it looks like all the hard work might have paid off.

We're absolutely over the moon.

-Yeah, brilliant.

-Couldn't be happier.

-No.

Back to Kent now, and the popular area of Brompton.

It was here back in December 2015, that I had a look at this two-bed

mid-terraced ex-local authority property

that had a guide price of 135-£140,000.

It was in a bit of a time warp

and was full of the previous owner's belongings.

But under all that, there was definite promise.

A major refurbishment, but not structural, just cosmetic required.

And so, yeah, I'm liking what I'm seeing actually.

A bramble filled garden, plus polystyrene tiles,

were just two of the big jobs that needed to be sorted here.

Yes, there was plenty of work to be done.

But that didn't put the bidders off on auction day.

£175,000, sold, madam.

Bought for £175,000 by 25-year-old university quality officer, Hannah.

This was Hannah's first property, and it had been a long time coming.

# Searching though it just ain't fair... #

What took you to the auction, then?

I had been looking for somewhere to live for about a year.

I've probably viewed about 100.

-100?

-While looking for this.

And I never found the one that was either quite right,

or the ones I did find that were right, everyone else wanted as well.

So I wasn't successful.

# Just have a little patience... #

Bought for herself and her partner, Mitch, Hannah wanted to modernise

the property from top to bottom with a little help from family and friends.

She envisioned the work would take from three to four months and at a

cost of between five and 10,000.

Well, it's almost two years later, and first impressions are looking good.

But let's step inside.

We say it a lot on homes under the hammer,

but this is a real transformation.

And unrecognisable from what it once was.

# And have a little patience... #

It's gone from cluttered and dated to modern and chic.

Hannah's search for her first home is finally over.

So, the first thing that we needed to get done with the house was to

replace the boiler and get the heating system up and running.

The second priority was to get all of the polystyrene down off the

ceiling and all of the fastened wallpaper and carpet up and out.

So once that was done, we re-carpeted throughout.

We also put in a new bathroom upstairs and a new shower room downstairs.

We put in, well, my dad very kindly fitted a whole new kitchen

for us downstairs and we've got laminate flooring in the kitchen

and the conservatory.

And then we've gone for vinyl flooring in both the bathrooms.

Good old dad. The bathroom upstairs is really lovely.

The two double bedrooms are now spacious and contemporary.

Outside all those brambles have been cleared to reveal not one,

but two garden sheds and a garden path to boot. Not bad at all.

My family have been really helpful, and also my partner and his family

have been excellent with getting everything done.

And we couldn't have really done it without them.

Overall, managing the project has been a really positive experience

and I've been really lucky because I've had so many people around to

help, that everything's run really smoothly.

So one of the biggest challenges overall of the project

was clearing the house.

We had furniture, curtains, old clothes, newspapers, records.

And so it took a long time to get everything clear, quite a lot of

donations to charities, selling some things online,

and also quite a lot of trips to the dump.

When it came to her timescale, Hannah initially thought she could

live in the house within a month to save on the commute and to get the

place completed in another three to four months.

Well, we know what it's like, life gets in the way.

With some work and travel commitments on the way,

that didn't quite pan out.

It took eventually around about six months before it was at a standard

where we were happy to move in and we had the kitchen and the bathroom

and everything sorted.

Overall for the project, we budgeted 5-10,000.

And it came out at around £7,000 in total.

We managed to save quite a lot of money,

because we very kindly donated quite a lot of stuff

and managed to get quite a few bargains along the way.

So, Hannah's total investment here is 182,000.

And while she has no plans to sell, or rent,

it will still be interesting to hear the thoughts of two local estate agents.

Starting with the agent who saw it originally.

The changes are great.

I mean, all the redecoration, everything has been done.

Just refurbished, it's very, very nice.

Yeah, I think it's really good. I think in terms of, you know,

what the properties go for in this kind of area,

obviously there's always a ceiling price for property,

so you don't want to go too mad.

So I think what they've done, you know, suits the area and suits the

style of the property, definitely.

Selling point is the fact that it's got new everything in here.

So a bathroom, kitchen, downstairs shower room.

Refurbed, absolutely brilliant. Someone will walk in and love it.

Well, the only people who'll be loving this property are Hannah and her partner.

But let's hear what value they've potentially added to their new home.

The resale of the property would be between 215 and £220,000.

And the rental would be between 825 and £850 per calendar month.

If I were to market this on the sales market,

I think it should go on the market for offers in excess of £220,000.

If I were to market for the lettings market, I think it should go on the

market for around about £875 per calendar month.

It's nice to know the rental and resale values,

but it hasn't changed my plans to live here for the foreseeable future,

but, obviously, it'll be nice to know further down the line when

eventually we do come to sell.

Based on those higher evaluations,

that's an increase in value on her home of £38,000

or a potential yield of nearly 6%.

But this, of course, was bought to be a home.

Overall, it's been really positive and it's really nice to see the

outcome and it's been worth the effort that we've all put in.

Sitting five miles north of the UK's second-largest city, Birmingham,

is the altogether more rural area of Great Barr.

Boasting great transport links to its busy neighbour,

and home to some excellent schools,

Great Barr is a sought-after and popular area to live in.

As you can see, I'm on this very busy main road.

But that does mean that this property,

has great links to the centre of West Bromwich and Birmingham.

And here it is. And before we start, we have got off street parking.

It's a detached property.

It's got three bedrooms and a guide price of 89-£99,000.

And it doesn't look too bad. Let's check out inside.

OK, we're in and...

..dated. Very, very dated.

Lots of brown. You've got the stairs here, going up to the bedrooms.

Nice flowery brown carpet.

You've got the second reception room here.

It's all very late '70s decor.

You've got a good-sized lounge living room here.

Dual aspect as well, you've got your window there

and double doors going to the back garden there.

It's all... You can see where the pictures have been on the wall.

That's the last time this place got decorated.

And through there, you've got a very big kitchen.

Huge kitchen, actually.

But again, that would all have to come out.

I do like the layout, I do like the configuration.

Lots to work with.

Saying that, I'll tell you what.

I'm going to get started anyway.

Might as well give them a hand, while I'm here.

HE WHISTLES

Excuse me.

Now you can't say we're not helpful here on Homes Under The Hammer.

Anyway, back to the property.

Just off the kitchen is a good sized garage, plus a downstairs toilet.

Although I'm not sure alfresco ablutions are popular these days.

So, plenty to do down here.

But plenty of potential too.

OK, upstairs we have the three bedrooms and a bathroom.

As I look around,

I can see upstairs is in very similar condition to downstairs.

There's the papers off the walls, signs of damp,

there's plaster missing off the walls as well.

So, by the way, apart from that, apart from that,

two good-sized bedrooms just here at the front of the property.

Sort of mirroring each other.

A smaller, a very small third bedroom there,

and your family bathroom.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done to this property to just

modernise it again and get it back to where it needs to be.

I'm thinking to myself, as that bedroom there is incredibly small,

could you extend that way into the back garden a bit more?

Single extension would give you a kitchen diner

and if you were to do a double extension,

you might be able to create a bigger third one or even four bedrooms if

you were to do it that way,

but there's lots of options and lots of things to think about.

# I got so many things to do

# I got work to do... #

You'd have to have a think about the costs and potential added value of

an extension.

And it depends on what you want the house for.

But there is plenty of potential here.

And even more so outside.

All right, the house is one thing,

but I had to bring you out here and show you this.

Look at the size of this back garden.

It goes on forever.

It's actually a third of an acre.

I do start to think to myself, could you develop this,

could you put maybe a small bungalow at the end of that garden?

Then you have to think about how do you get to it?

Access to the bungalow.

You could knock down the garage,

and you get access down the side of the house.

Then you've got to think about planning permission.

Then you've got to think about will the neighbours be happy with you

building at the bottom of the garden. It's a possibility.

You know, anything is possible, but if it were me,

I'd concentrate on the house.

I would put a bit of heart and soul into the house, modernise it,

make it look really nice. Brighten it up a bit and get this looking

as pretty as you possibly can.

I think together, this could be a really nice project.

With a little hard work and imagination,

this could be such an amazing family home with a stunning garden.

For me, it would be a shame to overdevelop it.

# Give a little love and you can get a little love of your own... #

But what does a local estate agent think of this property guided

at 89-£99,000?

It's got all the potential that you would want to either modernise the

house out and keep is as three-bedroom.

Or even contemplate extending the property to give you a lot more

accommodation if you wanted it.

Does an agent think a bungalow in the back garden is feasible?

You may get away with perhaps putting a bungalow or maybe even two

small bungalows at the end of the garden.

The agent thinks a refurbished three-bed property could get up to

300 grand and a four bed would be around 375-£385,000.

What about those bungalows he talked about?

If the new owner was going to sort of redevelop the back land and put

two bungalows, small bungalows on there,

I would envisage the price for them to be in the region of 180-£200,000 each.

This house is dark and dingy and there are signs of damp.

I think below the surface, there's a really nice home to be had here.

And don't forget, that back garden is huge and a really nice selling point.

That guide price should create lots of interest.

Let's find out just how much interest there was

when it went under the hammer.

Vacant freehold detached property, a fine substantial property there.

On about a third of an acre of ground.

120 for that.

Yes, sir, thank you, 120. 130, a lady.

140 at the back, yes.

140, 150.

160, 160 to 606.

165, I am bid.

170 bid, first bidder.

170, 175, madam?

Plenty of interest in this lot, with the bids flying in.

We leave the action and return with the bids at £226,000.

At £226,000 then for 361, for the first time.

Second time? Third and the very last time.

You're both out along here, at £226,000.

Yours in at 361.

One, two, three, are you bidding, sir?

He will have another one.

228. Make it 230, sir.

I have 230, do not be beaten.

228,000 on that, 230 on you.

232, sir. Well, you've run a good race and thank you.

361, 230, one, two, three.

It's yours, sir.

Thank you very much indeed. Number 321, and thank you all.

Selling for well over the guide price at 230 grand

to cousins and business partners, Ajaz here on the left and Tariq.

Both have experience in renovating properties,

but this be their first project together.

-Ajaz, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Tariq, nice to meet you too, sir.

-Nice to meet you too.

Congratulations as well.

-Thank you.

-So who actually found this property?

I found it. But we were together when we came to see it.

And we were together in auction as well.

OK. So what are the roles going to be?

Who's going to take which role?

He's going to be doing all the management and getting all the

people in and I'll probably do a little bit of the financing and, yeah.

-OK, the brains.

-Well...

-You're the brains!

-Yeah, if you want to call it that.

Why did you want to buy this place?

It's got the garden. The garden was the main reason.

-Amazing back garden.

-Yeah, a third of an acre and there is a lot of

potential to develop it - depending on planning.

What are your plans, then? What are your plans for the house?

We want to actually apply for planning for flats

and make 18 flats there.

-Really?

-If we can get that.

-So you want to get rid of this completely?

Yeah, we want to demolish it.

Demolish this and then start from the back.

Wow, that's sort of surprised me.

I wasn't expecting that at all.

So, 18, you said?

That's... You've got to create a lot of parking for 18 individual properties.

The way we came out with it was we make three on one side and

three on one side. You give a passageway in between.

-OK.

-And you just make three floors.

So you have six on one floor, six, six and pretty much straightforward.

-OK, so...

-You leave the land at the front, you'll have parking and

you'll also have some garden and you'll have some landscape, so...

If it comes out at the end of it, it should be quite a nice picture.

Let's talk about that. What would your budget be if you get planning?

We've got an estimate of, like, 50,000 a flat, so, you know, I mean,

if there is ten or 18 or whatever we get, then, I mean,

depending on that, it might be 8-900,000.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-To develop 18 flats?

Do up and complete, yeah.

-That is a big old budget.

-That's right, yeah.

And how long will it take to create all those flats

and your parking and your...?

We think it might take, like, eight,

nine months up to a year depending on, obviously,

we're going to need finance and everything.

And how much are you expecting to get back from that?

-Well...

-If you were to sell them?

Nearly two million. Because 120, 130 each flat and it's 18 flats there,

so we're expecting a 50% return.

# Put a spanner in the works

# You know you've got to step up your game to make it to the top... #

I've got to admire the pair's ambition.

They've never done a project of this scale.

They don't have planning permission and they don't even have finance

secured yet. So there's plenty of work ahead.

They plan to sell the properties if the work goes ahead and, thankfully,

they have a plan B.

Let's say you don't get the plans and it doesn't go through and your

first dream of putting flats here doesn't go through.

-What would you do then?

-We'd just be doing this house up,

maybe turn it into a four, five bedroom house.

Extend it a little bit and...

Or maybe put, like, one or two houses, again if we get planning,

to put one or two houses at the back.

And give a side entrance.

OK. Are you confident that you'll get the planning?

Are you confident you'll get your dream?

Yeah, definitely. Before we bought the property, we've done some work

on that, done some research on that and then, yeah, we will get that.

Just in case, if we don't, then we've got the next plan

is obviously to build this house,

build another one at the back, use the land and then sell them both.

Well, I wish you good luck. I've got my fingers crossed for the both of you.

-Thank you.

-Ajaz, all the best.

-Thank you very much.

-Tariq, good luck to you.

-Thank you.

-Wish you all the best.

-Thank you very much.

Tariq and Ajaz firstly surprised me with their plans.

You cannot fault their ambition, though.

What's going to end up here?

Is it going to be a house? Is going to be an extension?

Is it going to be bungalows?

Or will it be plan A, 18 flats?

I've no idea. You can find out how they get on later in the programme.

So, we've found out how one property fared, but what about the other two?

Yes, were their renovations on time and on budget?

Let's find out.

Back to Workington, Cumbria, now,

where I saw this terraced house is guided at 40-£50,000.

Although it appeared to be just a bare shell,

you didn't have to look far to find some problems.

These bricks look very wet and, actually, to the touch,

they are very wet.

There were a few signs of damage to the walls outside and cracks inside

and that was just about all that was in it.

Well, except for a lone loo.

# Well I've been lonely for so long

# Don't seem like happiness will come along... #

Certainly, Ethan and his business partners, Tim and David,

were happy with their £63,000 purchase.

The three business partners had two strands to their business plan -

one in renting properties and the other...

We specialise in electrical, plumbing and gas works,

so, fortunately, we are going to be able to do a lot of the works ourselves.

Having all that inside help allowed them to budget ten grand to

completely renovate this home, ready for someone to move into

in four months' time.

Have their team of handymen managed to give this place the magic touch?

Well, we're back bang on time scale to take a look.

# Feeling your magic, magic, magic

# You can do magic, baby... #

Well, as some might say in Scotland, this is magic!

From a bare shell to a light, bright, airy home

with all the mod cons.

# You can do magic, baby... #

The kitchen was bare of cupboards before, but now, wow!

A high spec kitchen in neutral colours with nice,

warm wood flooring and worktops.

Ethan and business partner, Tim, are going to tell us how they worked

their magic.

So, what we've done was we got a local supplier of kitchens to give

us some feedback on utilising the space.

We agreed the plan, the layout, which allowed our electrician and

joiners to come up with a plan between them to execute the job correctly.

We had a very good project manager in charge of the job in Stuart this

time as well, and he does a very, very good job of chasing all the

guys up and making sure they're in when they're supposed to be and a

very, very good job of managing the whole project for us.

While Stuart's managed the project on site,

Tim handled any off-site duties like material and labour while Ethan took

care of the admin.

When I spoke to Ethan last time,

he said they were going to get contractors in to spray the walls.

How did that go?

We worked with a local contractor.

They're a company who specialise in actually spraying the rooms.

Two benefits of this - it gives a nice finish to the walls and also it

speeds the process up. They'd done the full house in one day,

which then allowed our lads to get in and continue with the work.

One day for a whole house?

That's amazing.

And the result is brilliant.

Not just downstairs, but in the two bedrooms.

There's not a crack to be seen after the re-plastering,

so good job all round.

The new carpets will be nice and cosy for tootsies stepping out of

bed and, as for the toilet, it now has the partners you'd expect.

# Let's get together again

# All you need is here to stay... #

This bathroom has come together nicely.

They've stripped out an old vented cylinder, creating more space which

allowed them to install both a bath and a shower.

There is one distinctive thing missing from this house, though -

those damp brick walls!

We looked out at the gable end, obviously where all the weather

comes into and we saw that there were quite a few cracks in the render.

So to safeguard the future, we decided to take all the render off,

put a scaffold up and re-render and re-dash.

Pebble dash is when stones are thrown or dashed into the render

before it dries.

You may not think it's pretty, but it does weather well.

While they knew they had to tackle the render,

they had one big surprise in store.

So, when we came into here, we lifted the carpet and the

floorboards and we found an absolute disaster. It was full of water.

With the house being at the bottom of the hill,

the ground outside is higher than what is in here.

So basically, the water was coming from outside in.

What we had to do was tank all the walls to stop water penetrating

inside and that allowed us to put new joists in with a new floor.

I am getting a chance to show off today.

Tanking, in case you didn't know,

is a liquid coating that is used to form a waterproof barrier.

Anyway, now that we've got all the technical stuff out of the way,

are they still planning to rent this house out?

I'm going to be renting this one myself.

I hope you've done a background check on him, Tim!

Yeah, we've done a background check on him and everything seems to be fine.

If Ethan's taking it on, it shows that he's more than happy with what

we've done and the standard that's been done.

I would agree. Now, did they find it hard sticking

to that ten grand budget?

Once we got the floorboards up and realised what was happening outside,

we knew we weren't going to keep the budget and we actually came in about 15,000.

With that overspend,

they have invested a total of £78,000 in this property.

Has it all been worth it?

We invited along two local estate agents to see what they made of this

terrace, starting with the agent who saw it last time.

So, the vendors have done a fantastic renovation job.

This property is ready for a buyer to move straight in or a potential

tenant to move straight into.

I think the property's been done to a really high spec and it will work

for either rental or sales.

If they did decide to sell, what kind of price could they be asking?

On the open market, I would expect this property to be selling for in

the region of £95,000.

I would say in the region of 95-£105,000.

We're absolutely over the moon.

-Yeah, brilliant. Couldn't be happier.

-No.

At that top estimate of £105,000, that would give them a potential

profit of 27 grand minus taxes and fees.

Now, what rental figures could they expect?

If we were to place this property on the rental market,

I would say in the region of £450-485 per calendar month,

excluding bills.

On the rental market, this property would achieve between £525 per

calendar month and £550 per calendar month.

Hopefully, Ethan will be getting a good deal from his colleagues.

Or maybe they'll be charging him more?

As we said, we've done it up to a very good standard and that's

hopefully what we were looking to get back as a return.

Well, Ethan's not giving anything away.

£550 would be a yield of 8%, so what's next for this partnership?

There's a saying that we say at work - you can't admire your past,

you've got to look for the next pass, so I would love a holiday in

Barbados but currently we're undertaking our next property.

We head back now to North West Birmingham

in the area of Great Barr.

It was here where I first had a look around this three-bed detached property.

It had a guide price of 85-95 grand.

It was dated and dingy, but it was well proportioned downstairs.

Upstairs, it was a bit disappointing as two of the bedrooms were a good

size, but the third was very small.

It got me thinking about an extension.

Single extension would give you a kitchen diner

and if you were to do a double extension,

you might be able to create a bigger third one or even four bedrooms.

And there was plenty of room to do it.

A third of an acre which gave me another idea.

Could you put maybe a small bungalow at the end of that garden?

It's a possibility.

-# Possibility

-Possibility

-# Possibility

-Possibility

-# Possibility

-Possibility

-# Possibility

-Possibility... #

Two people who could see the possibility here were cousins and

first-time business partners, Tariq, here on the right, and Ajaz.

They bought the property for almost two and a half times the guide price

at 230 grand.

So, that suggested to me they weren't going to stick at this place

being a three-bed. What are your plans, then?

What are your plans for the house?

We want to actually apply for planning for flats

and make 18 flats there.

-Really?

-If we can get that, yeah.

So you want to get rid of this completely?

-Yeah, we want to demolish it.

-Demolish this and then start from the back.

Wow, that's sort of surprised me.

I wasn't expecting that at all.

# How did you do it?

# Didn't see it in your eyes

# Your approach didn't let me know

# What a surprise

# You just came into my life

# What a surprise... #

This ambitious duo had never done a project of this size before and

hadn't secured planning or the funds for the build,

which they estimated at £800-900,000.

But they weren't lacking in confidence.

That is a big old budget.

-That's right, yeah.

-And how much are you expecting to get back from that?

-Well...

-If you were to sell them?

Nearly 2 million. Because 120, 130 each flat,

and there's 18 flats there, so we're expecting a 50% return.

Well, a year and a half later and, I'm afraid,

it's not gone how they'd first hoped.

# I guess I'll have to change my plan

# I overlooked that point completely

# Until the big affair began... #

Yes, I'm afraid, bar a few carpets being ripped up,

nothing has changed since our last visit.

And at the back, have all the plans been refocused?

Well, at least a few bushes have been cleared up.

# Before I knew where I was at

# I found myself hung up on a shelf and that was that

# I tried to reach for the moon but you know when I got there

# All that I could get was the air... #

It falls on Tariq to pick up the story on what they discovered when

they spoke to the planning department.

We did some work in planning, but we had some issues regarding the flats.

It's very close to the junction, there is a road going next to that

which linked to these next-door flats and it's going to be too

crowded and it's linking to a main road and the

width of the property is not wide enough, so it wasn't a good idea.

We will look at it, maybe not 16, maybe six flats, but then again,

that's not our intention to do that.

We've just done a preplanning application which was not a complete

application. We've done some research,

we've done some enquiries and then we plan not to go ahead with that.

We've never done the full application.

So, after doing some research, they realised their plans for

multiple flats would not be passed by planning.

But what about plan B, extending the existing property?

The next plan was to build this into a detached big house,

into a six bedroom house.

And maybe build a small one at the back.

But then we've done some local research in the area.

It wasn't much profitable for us because it's going to take a lot of

time and then the profit margin wasn't good enough

for us to carry on with that. That's why we dropped that as well and

we'll put it back into the auction.

It's been sold for £248,000 and that's what we're going to get

from the auction.

So, having cut their losses and put it back into auction,

and having spent around 3,000 on the property,

they've managed to make a pre-tax profit of 15 grand.

But was it the right decision?

We've asked along two local estate agents to see what they think,

starting with the agent who saw it originally.

Well, since I last came,

it doesn't look like they've done anything at all.

It's the same now as it was when they bought it.

On paper, this property potentially could've been a great plot,

you know, for building.

But it is subject to sewer issues and transport, you know,

things like that. That would all determine whether or not the

planning was authorised.

It just goes to show, you should always take advice from

the local planning department before you take the plunge.

It's also worth looking up the council's local planning information,

which is usually available online.

This can give you an indication of what's possible and what not.

So, let's go back to basics. If they had gone on and developed the

house, what could it sell for right now?

If they were to extend the property into a four or five bedroom property,

then price for the area, for that type of property, is probably in the

region of 375,000, maybe £385,000.

I think if the property were to be extended into a four or potentially

a five bedroom property, the profit margin wouldn't be enormous.

It would probably go up to figures, you know, sort of 350, 365,

around that sort of figure there.

Because again, the area will only command a certain sale price.

If you were to assume around £100,000 for renovation and extending,

a potential profit based on those valuations would come in around

17 and 47 grand.

In the meantime, the cousins are happy to take their 15 grand and

have no more hassle, but they're not put off by the auctions.

Auction is not a bad option to go for.

The only thing is if you pick up the right property, then it's good.

Well, as we've seen, some property development projects do largely go

-to plan.

-Yes, but unfortunately, some go wrong.

The plans go out the window.

Join us next time for more best

-laid plans here on Homes Under The Hammer.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.